Cleo says I want to play

This is Cleo, one of my much-loved cats. She's a beautiful little thing; Happy, snuggly and affectionate and like any self-respecting cat lover's our cats run our household; As if we'd ever get any real say in the matter. We don't mind though, and if you ever happen to come over you'll find a couple of cat castles, multiple mouse-toys, bells, strings and other various cat-toy paraphernalia strewn about the house in various states of being played with by Cleo and Merlin, our other cat.

Cleo doesn't say much. Well, she says plenty with her body language, mannerisms and eyes, but she's not vas vocal as our other cats have been. She simply finds a snuggly spot, settles in and sleeps. If we happen to be on the couch that spot tends to be our laps with my wife's being her primary location and mine being the secondary, depending on her mood. She knows I wriggle around a lot so my wife's lap, or outstretched legs are always a more secure location. I took this image you see the other night whilst she was snuggled up on Faith's legs sharing her blanket.

She has a cute little meow and when she uses it we listen. Did you know cats can make around one hundred sounds as opposed to the 10 or so a dog can make? They all mean things too, which is kind of cool. We've come to understand what our cats say; Their various meow's, chirps, yowls, eeps, purrs, gurgles and other various noises all mean something, and we respond to them as requested, like good humans. One of Cleo's most funny noises though is one we usually hear in the very early hours of the morning, when we are asleep...When we were asleep...

Cleo has a pink string with a little mouse toy tied at one end and a bell at the other. She doesn't play with it much, only during the night. We often wake to her meowing, quite loudly, and can hear the bell ringing its way down the hallway dinging on the tiled floor as she drags the mouse-toy-string towards the bedroom. We can always tell she has the mouse-toy in her mouth as she meow's differently. How else would she drag it anyway I guess? It's sort of funny. She brings it to bed and curls up with it until the morning. This happens most nights.

On those nights when we put the toy/string on the bed she drags it off during the night, plays with it in the hallway then brings it back. All of that playing and dragging is accompanied by the dinging of the little bell. Yes, we know we could remove the bell but as I said earlier, it's their house, and so their rules... We just happen to pay for it!

I know many people don't like cats and that's ok. For me I don't trust people who don't like cats though. Well, it's not that I don't trust them, just that I don't relate to a person who doesn't like cats much. I hate those people that gleefully tell stories about kicking cats and stuff like that though, with a passion...Makes we want to shoot them in the face kick them. A lot.

Our cats are like the children we don't have and we appreciate every moment we have with them, even when they wake us up in the middle of the night. Coming home to our cats, who always greet us at the door with a welcome home meow and a rolly-polly, upside-down roll, always puts a smile on our faces.

I think pet-lovers are all the same no matter what the pet. They become a part of our lives, a part of the family, and are much-loved and deeply grieved when they leave us. Who is your special pet? Feel free to post a picture here, or do a post yourself and tag me. I'd love to meet some of them!

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Merlin and Cleo hanging out. I'm not sure what Merlin is doing here...patting Cleo on the head or holding her head still because she likes to snuggle up and give him kisses...He doesn't like it sometimes.